Island



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. R. WANDBEWS. PIGKER CHECK FOR LOOMS.

No. 594,719. Patented Nov. 30, 1897.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

R. W. ANDREWS.

. PIGKER CHECK FOR L'OOMS. No. 594,719. Patented Nov. 30, 1897.

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. UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

ROBERT WV. ANDREWS, OF STAFFORDVILLE, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE P. ANDREWS, OF SAME PLACE, AND SARAH JANE CHAMBERLIN,

OF WESTERLY, RHODE ISLAND.

'PlCKER-CHECK FOR LO'OMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 594,'719, dated November 30, 1897.

Application filed January 14:, 1897. Serial No. 619,215. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, ROBERT W. ANDREWS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Staffordville, Tolland county, State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Picker- Check for Looms, of which the following is a specification.

My improvements relate to that class of looms in which a shuttle at the commencement and end of its throw is in immediate contact with a picker in place of being struck by or striking a picker-staff and in which the picker-stafi is relieved from the wear incident to the blow of the shuttle, the object of my invention being the checking of the shuttle in a manner insuring its more perfect working and providing for its automatic return with the picker at the end of its throw to a proper position for the stroke of the pickerstaif.

My invention is fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure I is a side elevation of my device detached, with the movable parts at rest. Fig. II is the same with the movable parts changed by the blow of the picker and shuttle. Fig. III is a rear end elevation with the movable parts in the position shown in Fig. I. Fig. IV is an end elevation, with a portion broken away, of a part of the device. Fig. V is a top plan view of the device as shown in Fig. IV. Fig. VI is a top plan I view of a part. Fig. VII is a rear elevation of a lay-box and part of a drop-box with my device in position as combined with a loom; and Fig. VIII is a top plan View of a lay-box and part of a shuttlebox, showing my device operatively com bined with a loom.

In my Patent No. 469,671, of March 1,1892, it was shown how to combine with a loom a picker-check to relieve the picker-staff and how to check the shuttle in such gradual manner as to prevent the throwing off or breaking of the filling, but in that device the placing of the picker and shuttle for the blow of the picker-staff was effected by the swing of the lay. In the present improved check, while all of the advantages of absorbing the blow of the shuttle so as to preserve the filling are obtained, the picker and shuttle are placed in ,b and bolts to b, adapting it to be screwed position for the stroke of the picker-staff by the check itself.

In the drawings, B is a metal frame fiat on both sides and provided with bolt-holes a 5.5 flat to the vertical wall of the lay-box C, as shown in Figs. VII and VIII, where it is seen bolted on the inner side of the front wall of the lay-box. Projecting at right angles to the inner face of the frame B and near its top is a lug D in the form of a polygonal block, which extends, when the frame is secured as shown in Fig. VIII, nearly across the lay-box. The lug D comprises a part c, with parallel upper and lower horizontal sides, a vertical slot d, centrally located in the part c and open to the rear, and from its front end an upwardly-extending curved journal-bearing 6. All of one side of lug D is integral with the frame B. The top of the journal-bearing e is semicircular, which half-round part is connected by a curved surface g with the bottom side of part c and by a tangential surface h with the top side of part c. The journal-bearing 6, whose baseis in approximately a horizontal line,h as its rear surface prolonged in an easy curve by the eccentric surface g, departing gradually farther from the center of bearinge as it approaches the bottom side of the part c, to which it is joined.

Seated upon the top of lug D is a rigid lever E. The lever E, of a width corresponding to that of lug D, comprises a long arm '6, a short arm m, and a fulcrum part 0. When the lever E is in its normal position on the lug, its short arm m bears upon the top surface of part 0, its fulcrum part 0 conforms to and bears on the semicircular part c, and the long arm 2', clearing the eccentric 9, extends down in an approximately vertical position to the path of the picker F, whichit is faced to conform to, as shown in Figs.VII and VIII.

The short arm of lever E is provided with a slot d, with an open mouth to the rear, as shown more particularly in Fig.V, which slot, when the lever is in its normal position, is a prolongation of slot at of the lug D, and above the rear end of slot d in the short arm 1% and transversely thereto is a curved socket s.

Combined with lug D and lever E, to normally hold the lever in the relative position shown more particularly in Fig. I, is a spring bolt bearing the short arm m to a bearing on part c of lug D and fulcrum part 0 to the part 6. The spring-bolt comprises a bolt 25, adapted to be received in slots (1 and d, and a rounded head u, adapted to straddle the short arm m above the slot d and rest in the socket s, to which it conforms and in which it slightly rotates when the short arm m is separated from its bearing on the lug D, as shown in Fig. II. A spring II surrounds the bolt and bears between the washer to and an adjusting-nut 1) upon the threaded free end of the bolt i to regulate the strength of the spring. A washer w bears over slot 61 and receives the thrust of one end of the spring. An outside check-nut y is also combined with the bolt, as shown.

The bolt-hole a in frame B is in the top of the frame, near the face of long arm 11 of the lever E, and, as shown in Fig. VII, serves to permit the frame to be bolted to the wall of the lay-box, while bolt-hole b is at the bottom of frame B and coincides with a curved slot :0 in the wall of the lay-box. Said slot is described on a circle, having the bolt-hole ct as its center, and by loosening the two bolts in said holes the bottom of the frame B can be swung to bring the face of lever E to different angles to compensate for the reduction in size and change in shape of the picker from wear, and in its changed position the frame B can be secured by simply tightening up the two bolts which bind it to the lay-box wall.

In Fig. VII portions of a lay box and shuttle-box are shown, with the inner walls removed and the picker in partial section between the eveners X X before being impelled by the blow of the shuttle T to swing lever E from its normal resting position. In the same position the lever is shown in top plan view in Fig. VIII, with the picker F upon its guide-rod n and tied to the picker-stafi W, the parts in both views Figs. VII and VIII being to a scale of one-half natural size. In operation the blow of the picker upon first impact starts the lever to rotate upon its half-round fulcrum. After the commencement of rotation the long arm of the lever begins to find a fulcrum on the eccentric surface joined to its first journal-bearing, and as the lever continues to swing under pressure its fulcrum continually shifts farther andfarther from the short arm,and conversely nearer to the free end of the long arm, with the result that the lever gets weaker progressively and the weight, in the shape of the spring, gets stronger out of all proportion, due to the compression of the spring. I am by these means able to oppose to the blow of the picker and shuttle a check yielding easily enough at first to prevent the rebound of the shuttle and rapidly increasing its resistance to absorb gradually all of the momentum of the shuttle before the limit of elasticity or settin g of a spring weak enough for the initial resistance is reached, and while consequently there is always an elastic reserve to prevent a smash. 1

The lever and spring-bolt cannot by any operation of the shuttle or picker nor by the movement of the lay be detached from their frame and its lug; but when it is desired to remove the picker to replace it, or for any other reason, or when it is desired to tighten up the spring H the bolt with spring can easily be withdrawn from slots (Z and d and the lever E be lifted oif its seat on the lug to leave an open space for removing the picker from the lay-box, and to assemble the parts in operative position it is only necessary to drop the lever into its place and insert the bolt in the slots in rear of the lug and lever.

It is evident that in place of slots (Z d opening to the rear a hole of larger diameter than the bolt through the seat of the lug and short arm of the lever to permit the bolt to be passed through and then through the coilspring before having the end nut screwed on the bolt would make the spring-bolt equally effective; but the open-end slots and socket 8 permit the withdrawal or assembling of the spring-bolt with all of its parts as one piece and with the spring at an adjusted tension, so that to remove all of the downward-ere tending parts of the device it is sufficient to pull the spring-bolt from its place. NVhen the short arm of the lever is separated from its seat on the lug, as shown in Fig. II, the socket s, by means of the bolt-head resting on it, prevents the bolt from sliding out of the slots d cl. After the shuttle is checked this device becomes operative to return the picker and shuttle to the position to receive the blow of the picker-staff automatically.

Although the most convenient way of attachment of frame B, having the lug D, is, as shown in the drawings, upon the inner wall of the lay-box, it may be, without a departure from the spirit of my invention, bolted to the outer face of the front wall to have the lug extend through or over said wall to support the lever and spring-bolt within the lay-box.

Without the eccentric prolonged from the half-round journal of the lug this device would be an effective picker-check, possessing many advantages over those now in use, from the small space it occupies and the fa cility with which it can be removed and again replaced.

Now, having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In loom pickerchecks, a lay-box, a metal frame bolted to its vertical wall, a lug integral with the frame and projecting at right angles therefrom over the inside of the box, said lug comprising a polygonal block presenting a rear horizontal seat and upwardextending rounded journal-surface from the front of said seat, a rigid lever with short arm and adjacent fulcrum adapted to rest upon and conform to the lug-seat and journal, and a long arm faced to the picker and ex tended downward in its path, coinciding boltholes through rear of lug and short arm of lever; and a downward-extending springbolt combined with the short lever-arm and lug, and operating to normally bear them together, substantially as shown and described.

2. A lay-box, a metal frame bolted to one vertical wall of the box, a polygonal lug from the frame and projecting over the interior of the box with a rear seat-surface and upwardextended journal therefrom, said journal being rounded on its top with an enlarged eccentric surface prolong'ed therefrom, a rigid lever comprising a short arm and adjacent fulcrum conformed to bear upon the lug-seat and rounded journal, and a long arm faced to the picker and extended down in its path in close proximity to the eccentric, coinciding bolt-holes through the lug-seat and short arm of the lever, and a spring-bolt received through the lug and short arm of the lever and bearing to normally hold the lever seated with its long arm just free of the eccentric, substantially asand for the purpose described.

3. The combination of the frame; a lug thereon provided with a seat for the short lever-arm, and raised journal with outwardextended enlarged eccentric; rigid lever with straight long arm prolonged from its rounded projecting from said frame provided with a lever-seat, journal and eccentric bearing, rigid lever with short arm seated on the lug and long arm extended down into the pickerpath, and spring-bolt 13 hearing the lever to its seat and journal, all arranged and operating as set forth, the short lever-arm and corresponding lug-seat being provided with coinciding bolt-holes cl and d therethrough and open to the rear, short lever-arm also being provided with a socket s therein above said holes, the head of the bolt resting in said socket; whereby the removable parts are held operatively connected by the spring, and adapted to be displaced or assembled without changing the position of the spring-regulating nut upon the bolt.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT W. ANDREWS. Witnesses:

R. F. HYDE, G. P. ANDREWS. 

